Notes on a Brewday: Harvest Season

We are in the midst of harvest season. In Minnesota, it comes earlier than elsewhere. Hop cones are flourishing, grapes are ripening. For us homebrewers, it means one last big warm-weather brew day.

Notes on a Brewday: Eye of the Sun Winter Ale

I'd like to toast homebrewers in the southern United States. I have too much skin to haul full liquor kettles across my backyard or stand over a 200,000+ BTU propane stove when the summer swelter gets angry. My desire to brew suffers under an oppressive 86 degree dewpoint & 116 degree heat index. Such afternoons signal it's too late to brew any lawnmower beer that isn't already sweating in hand; it's time to get a winter ale brewing.

Notes on a Brewday: John Ireland Blvd. Bitter

I was brewing on a Wednesday. It was the third batch outside on the Banjo Burner, a wind screen fashioned with Aluminum foil. It seems like a bitter northwest wind swept around St. Paul on that otherwise fair summer day. I woke up to that wind spreading word of the newest tent in the ongoing Minnesota state government shutdown circus: media outlets were warning Joe Six-pack that MillerCoors' MN state seller's license couldn't be renewed & their M-C brands were to be pulled from liquor store shelves.

In any other year, the expiration of a state license would set into motion the process of a renewal. This year, the civil servants that process state license renewals at the commerce department were laid off along with thousands of other state employees when elected officials couldn't come together & draft a state budget.

Mash Tun Time Machine

All that's old is new, and I for one welcome our Victorian throwback overlords. There seems to be a developing trend in the world of IPA: a hearkening back to the days of yore with ultra-traditionalist rebrews of 19th century export ales from the days of the Raj.

Notes on a brewday: Warminster Standard

Technically, it was a brewnight.
Waxing moon over boiler.

My wife likes English bitters, her birthday is coming up, and she wants to throw a party with lots of beer. She also owns a rhinestone-encrusted switchblade with which she makes sure I understand the things she says. Fortunately I happened to have the last 10 pounds from a sack of Maris Otter laying around and a raging propagation of Wyeast's Thames Valley II with no place else to be. I also had the urge ... the urge to sparge. To the backyard!

Tasting: Twa Oats Roastie

Hello, stout ... nice to see ya. It's been a long time; you're just as lovely as you used to be.

I'm sorry, Conway Twitty - that's your song, and this is an oatmeal stout.

How to Plan a Rebrew: Part Two

This saga began with a recipe I created for an oatmeal stout. The first round of triple oat stout was a decent success, but I wanted to make some improvements to get the beer more where I wanted it to be. Things that I attempted to correct in the second version were color, hop selection and yeast selection.

Here is the recipe for version two:

Eat Your Beer Like A King

There are many ways to consume beer. Sometimes, we drink it out of a pint glass, other times a ram’s horn or a beer bong shaped like a skull. I, sometimes, consume beer out of food. Ever make a beer solely for eating with brats? I have. In Wisconsin, beer and brats go hand-in-hand. Or maybe brat in-bun-in-hand with beer in-the-other-hand.

Pump it!

William Armstrong was born in Newcastle upon Tyne and grew up to be the father of hydraulics. He designed an engine that was powered by water, but nobody cared at the time. Armstrong was all about renewable energy. Back in 1863, he predicted that England would stop producing coal by 2063. He pushed for the use of solar power and hydroelectricity. He lived from 1810-1900. He has nothing to do with beer, but he is one of my personal heroes.

Seared Strip Steak with Beer Braised Greens and Nut Brown Reduction

Serves 4 Entree Portions

Product Review: Cellarmanship

I was glad to put my hands on a copy of Patrick O'Neill's Cellarmanship. It's distributed by CAMRA. I've been trying to get a copy for some time but it's been difficult to find any where in the US for some reason. Until now! NB now has them in stock.

Notes on a brew day: Old Golden and DSB (Dawson's Special Bitter)

What's better than ten gallons of homebrew? Not much.

Ah, but what if there were some way to  achieve two different kinds of beer from one batch? Pitch two different yeasts, you say? True. But I was thinking of parti-gyle.

How to plan a re-brew

So as a home brewer develops his or her brewing skills, the natural tendency is to start developing recipes. This task can be a little more nebulous than cooking, where results can be measured instantaneously. I decided to try my hand at creating a recipe for a stout that was somewhere in between a breakfast stout and an oatmeal stout, two of my favorite beer styles.

Mild Ale

A mere hour into Saint Paul's Summer Beer Fest & I'm lost among pale ales of Extra, Imperial & lesser grades. The Midwest's ale scene in 2010 continues to pour copper colours of beer infused with green knowledge. Get out of the sun & into a shady Lyndale Ave. pub for a pitcher of bitter elixir, every drinker is on your side!

Right?

Double drop fermentation

So I've been reading some books about British pub beers and, in particular, the vaunted British Bitter. Needless to say, I was inspired to recreate the technique of the Brakspear brewery, which produces some of the finest brews in the UK. They use an interesting technique known as the double-drop fermentation and claim it produces unique flavors, especially in their Bitter.

Brewer's log: Floor Malt Experiment #3: Parti-gyle 140 Shilling and a “Halvsy”

I too had the opportunity to experiment with the Warminster floor-malted Maris Otter. My goal was two worts from one mash: a Scottish 140/- ale, and a second "small beer" (we'll call it the Halvsy). In total the grist was about 24 lbs for a 5 gallon batch of each of the two beers.

Brewer's log: Floor Malt Experiment #2

MD had his fun, now's my time.

I got my hands on several pounds of Warminster floor-malted Maris Otter. Last Saturday found me without the fiancee for the afternoon. So I rolled out of bed, made up the sanitizer, gathered the ingredients & lit up the hot liquor on the stove...

30th Level Beer Nerd

Brewing beer is a lot like playing pen and paper RPGs. There are numbers and things to keep track of, it is a great social activity, and you get to use your imagination a lot.

Notes on a Brew Day: AK-747 Pale Mild

Brew day! English ale = bored dog. She only likes lagers.

An Ode to Bitter

British bitter is one of my favorite styles to brew. It's simple, cheap, and well balanced, much like yours truly.